Four fined $136,000 for fishing offences

EDITOR'S NOTE:This story has been updated since it was first published with a correction. The original DFO news release incorrectly identified Wade Freeman Nickerson as pleading guilty to illegal retention of halibut and being ordered to pay a $60,000 fine. It was, in fact, Yarmouth Bar Fisheries Limited, the company for which Nickerson is the director and president, which pleaded guilty to that charge and was fined.

The cases included one offender having fishing licences cancelled for life and another fishing multiple times in an unauthorized area.

Yarmouth Bar Fisheries Limited was fined $60,000 by Judge Robert Prince after pleading guilty in June to illegal retention of Atlantic halibut — “a major conviction” under federal legislation, the release said.

An investigation also revealed Yarmouth Bar Fisheries had bought, possessed and sold halibut “that was caught in contravention of the Fisheries Act and/or regulations,” it said.

In Bridgewater, two fines totalling $52,420 were imposed by Judge Gregory Lenehan in June on Elmer Leon Jollymore of Little Tancook Island and Edward Glen Boutilier, formerly of Hubbards.

Jollymore got dinged $42,420; Boutilier was fined $10,000.

The former had his groundfish licences suspended for one year. Boutilier had his groundfish, mackerel and herring licences cancelled for life, the release said.

A probe by federal fishery officers revealed the offences were connected to selling unreported groundfish catches.

Jollymore and Boutilier pleaded guilty to three charges: failure to hail accurate weights, failing to determine an accurate weight at dockside after fish have been landed and selling fish caught in contravention of the Fisheries Act or regulations.

In Cape Breton, Robert Moses Truckair of Glace Bay was penalized $24,000 by Judge Patrick Curran and forfeited a $15,000 bond on June 21 after being convicted of five counts of fishing in an unauthorized area.

“The charges arose from illegal activity” in a crab fishing zone in 2009 when Truckair was only allowed to fish in a specific crab harvesting district, the release said.

Fishery officers found he had made five fishing trips into the out-of-bounds region between May 11 and June 4, 2009, the release said.

Officers on the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Louisbourg later located and seized 35 snow crab traps belonging to Truckair in the unauthorized area.